USC winner, USC loser: College Football Week 5

Lane Kiffin was fired from his post at USC in the middle of his third season after going 28-15 with the Trojans. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Winner: USC showed a lot of class in its firing of coach Lane Kiffin. AD Pat Haden let him fly home with the team from loss at Arizona State, waiting until after team arrived at a Los Angeles airport to fire him. You remember the saying, If you go, go Greyhound. Haden didn’t make him go Greyhound from Tempe.

Loser: Didn’t Haden know this guy was a loser before now? Not only has he been a bad head coach everywhere he has been given the opportunity, he reportedly asked Tennessee student hostesses to help in recruiting, them threw them under the bus when their actions, innocent as far we know, were questioned by the NCAA. On second thought, Kiffin should have had to take the bus back to LA. Why did Haden keep him after last season? A better question: Why did USC hire him in the first place?

Winner: Baylor. Like an NBA referee, I can make a make-up call, can’t I? Roundly criticized by Baylor fans last week after questioning their scheduled, rated No. 178 among FBS teams after the first three games, I apologize after their second opponent, Buffalo, beat UConn, 41-12, Saturday. Just seven days prior, UConn lost to Michigan, 24-21. Conclusion: Baylor would destroy Michigan. Sic ’em.

Loser: APU. That stands for All Players United. Some players from Georgia Tech, Georgia and Northwestern wore the initials on their wristbands in Week 4, in solidarity with movement for better treatment of college athletes by NCAA. After a stern talking to by university officials, there were no reports of players wearing the wristbands last week. So much for free speech on college campuses, bastions of free speech.

Winner: Prairie View A&M’s Jerry Lovelock threw for four touchdown passes and ran for three in a 56-48 victory over SFA.

Winner: Sam Houston State’s Timothy Flanders ran for 280 yards, giving him more than 5,000 for his career, and scored two touchdowns in a 49-34 victory over Eastern Washington. I had to look that up again. Yes, 280 yards. The two teams combined for 1,026 yards in last season’s FBS semifinals They combined for 1,052 Saturday.

Loser: All of us with the death of former LSU, Army, South Carolina coach Paul Dietzel, Known as Pepsodent Paul for his toothy smile, he won at LSU with an aggressive defense he called the Chinese Bandits. Baylor later appropriated the nickname, calling its defenses the Chinese Baptists.

Winner: Oklahoma, beating Notre Dame, winning for only the second time in 11 tries at South Bend since 1956.

Winners: The Houston Cougars are 4-0. Although the Cougars were tied with UTSA at 21 in the third quarter, they won 59-28.

Winner: Houston Baptist won its first home game ever, 34-3, over Oklahoma Baptist. The Huskies played in front of a crowd of 3,166 at Jesuit’s Crusader Stadium. “The first game, everybody showed up,” freshman quarterback Ka’Darius Baker said.